Katarina Boye

TIME SPENT WORKING: Paid work, housework and the gender difference in psychological distress

ABSTRACT This study examines the connection between the time that women and men spend on paid work and housework and psychological distress, and addresses the question whether gender differences in time spent on these activities account for the gender difference in psychological distress. A group (n =1,277) of employed and cohabiting women and men from the Swedish Level-of-Living Survey 2000 (LNU 2000) are analysed using OLS regression. Results show that time spent on housework explains part of the gender difference in psychological distress. Among women, paid working time and possibly time spent on housework are associated with low psychological distress. However, spending too much time on one role decreases the possible beneficial effect of the other, and this is mainly caused by the resulting increase in total role time. Mens level of psychological distress is not associated with hours of paid work or housework. The study also shows that the division of housework between women and men is unusually uneven in households where women have a long total role time. Thus, an increase in mens participation in housework could decrease the gender difference in psychological distress as well as the number of women experiencing a high workload.

Can you stay home today? Parents’ occupations, relative resources and division of care leave for sick children

This is one of only a few studies on the division of care leave for sick children (temporary parental leave) between parents in Sweden and is the first to examine the importance of differences in parents’ work characteristics. The study uses register data for parents with children born between 1999 and 2002 to analyse two aspects of parents’ employment that may be of importance for the division of care leave: their relative resources, in this case wages, and different occupations. First, the results show that a father’s share of care leave increases as the mother’s relative wage decreases. This suggests that decisions about care leave are influenced by bargaining power gained through differences in resources. Second, the resources of couples where both partners work in the same occupation are more equal, and such couples also divide care leave more equally than couples with different occupations. However, the fact that same-occupation couples tend to share care leave more equally does not seem to be explained by similarities in the partners’ work characteristics, and may instead be due to unmeasured, stable characteristics. Greater income and career possibilities for the women are proposed as a possible explanation of the division of care leave for same-occupation couples.

Stagnation only on the surface? The implications of skill and family responsibilities for the gender wage gap in Sweden, 1974-2010

The wage differential between women and men persists in advanced economies despite the inflow of women into qualified occupations in recent years. Using five waves of the Swedish Level-of-Living Survey (LNU), this paper explores the gender wage gap in Sweden during the 1974-2010 period overall and by skill level. The empirical analyses showed that the general gender wage gap has been nearly unchanged for the past 30 years. However, the gender difference in wage in less qualified occupations fell considerably, whereas the gender pay gap remained stable for men and women in qualified occupations. The larger significance of family responsibilities for wages in qualified occupations is one likely explanation for this result.

Workplace Skill Investments – An Early Career Glass Ceiling? Job Complexity and Wages Among Young Professionals in Sweden:

Despite higher educational investments, women fall behind men on most indicators of labour market success. This study investigates whether workplace skill investments set men and women off on different tracks in which the human capital acquired through higher education is either devalued or further developed. A survey sample of Swedish men and women who recently graduated from five educational programmes, leading to occupations with different gender composition, is analysed (N ≈ 2300). Results show that, a few years after graduation, men are more likely than women to acquire complex jobs and that this difference contributes to early career gender gaps in wages and employee bargaining power. The findings do not support the notion that child-related work interruptions provide a main mechanism for sorting women into less complex jobs.